Growing Up
by andIJDC
Summary: A series of short one-shots about marriage, parenting, babysitting, being a child in Fairy Tail guild, and all that other jazz about life. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail (c) Hiro Mashima  
**

* * *

**The First Surprise**

It came as a definite surprise when she found out.

For a while she had thought all her years of drinking had finally caught up to her for one, ultimate hell of hangover. It wasn't like she was in denial or anything; she really had honestly forgotten what it was like to have a hangover, so it took her a while to realize she had misdiagnosed herself. And man, when she finally knew what was truly happening to her, she was absolutely incredulous, even going as far as visiting the town doctor so many times that the doctor actually threatened to get a restraining order against her. But once she finally accepted the truth of her situation (after reading her fate for the twentieth time with the same result) she figured, what the hell, what was done was done, and all that was left was to have a little mischievous fun spreading the news.

She wasn't surprised, when she saw his reaction. Quite the contrary, she expected it. Hell, she even laughed upon seeing his ridiculous expression. Daddy material he was definitely not, she had told him in between fits of laughter. This seemed to finally snap him out of his shocked state as he quickly joked in like, stating she was no better suited for parenthood than he. When he, still slightly stunned, asked if she was absolutely sure, she deadpanned and answered quite seriously that, yes, she was sure.

No one else knows what else was said between the two that day Cana told the Bacchus that she was pregnant. All she would say when asked was that things had been "settled." He didn't love her. She didn't love him. They were good friends. Nothing more asked for. Nothing more needed. It had been simply "a _wild_ night," as Cana called it, laughing at her own joke before trailing off into silence as she remembered fondly that one night, releasing enough pheromones to intoxicate all the males in the guild.

Indeed, Cana had asked nothing of the Quatro Cerberus man…except for one, not quite-so-simple condition. If she couldn't drink alcohol for nine months, than by gods, neither would the man who knocked her up. He took quite easily to the request, considering it more as a challenge to see which of the two raving alcoholics would cave in first. A hefty bet was of course made, though the unspoken truth was that they both knew this was a sure win for Cana (what with all the women in her guild that would surely be watching her every move like hawks). When later questioned by his companions as to why he made such bet, Bacchus simply remarked that it was the least he could do as a man.

Bacchus ended up paying Cana the 100,000 jewels they had bet seven months into her pregnancy. Two months after that, Cana was lying in a hospital bed grinning victoriously as she heard the first cries of her healthy baby girl. And when she finally got to hold in her arms the beautiful little girl, with a striking little fuzz of orange on her head and dark brown eyes, Cana cried out loudly for her entire guild, who was impatiently waiting outside her hospital room, to hear, "Someone get me a beer to celebrate!" (This of course, was immediately prohibited by her doctor, much to her disdain.)

And celebrate they did as soon as Cana was proclaimed well enough to leave the hospital. It was one full night of partying where beer and cheer was plentiful, and Cana drunk with abandon as if to make up for those hellish nine months of sobriety, holding a large glass of beer in one hand and cradling baby Cornelia in the other (who oddly enough was able to sleep through most of the party).

Yes, Cana had expected Bacchus's surprised reaction. She had expected her female guild mate's overexcited, overprotective reactions including Erza's flushed anxiety, Bixa's guidance, and Lucy's reprimanding whenever Cana even thought about taking just a tiny, innocent, little, meager sip of alcohol during her pregnancy. She had even anticipated Gildart's stupid, giddy reaction at the thought of being a grandfather and the equally stupid rampage that followed soon after upon hearing that the good-for-nothing man that had impregnated his precious daughter had no plans of taking responsibility. (Both reactions which resulted in the untimely loss of the entire west side of Magnolia town's buildings until he was finally calmed down by an aggravated Cana.)

What Cana hadn't expected – what no one had expected – was the man who unconsciously took the reins as the child's main father figure over the years.

But that is another story for another time.

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**A/N:Ah, that was a terribly abrupt ending.  
**

**I never had the intention of making Cana have a child, because although I really like the idea of Bacchus and Cana together, after I truly thought about it I realized that I just can't see them being actually **_**together**_** together as a married couple with children. (But I can totally see them having wild, hot drunken sex.) Ahem, anyways… An idea hit me for a future chapter, and I kinda really needed the spawn of a certain man for it to work and the only available woman to pair him with was Cana. But I have read some stories with them together so it's not **_**complete**_** and total crack. I'm pretty sure you can even guess who he is by simple process of elimination.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail (c) Hiro Mashima**

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**Competition and Smiles**

Of all the people in the world – _of all the beautiful girls in the guild_ – Mirajane never expected that the one person she would have to compete with to gain Freed's attention was none other than…

"Laxus!"

Mirajane blinked her large eyes in surprise as she stared at the suddenly empty bar stool before her that had previously been occupied by her green-haired companion just seconds before. She glanced up, immediately spotting the small bundle of four standing by the guild doors, where the man she had been talking to was now a part of. She smiled softly at the sight of the Rajinshu crowding around the blonde dragon slayer who had finally returned after an exceptionally long mission. How cute she thought, as she watched Fried, seemingly so different from his usual self, as he gushed over Laxus.

...

"Ah, Laxus. How was your mission?"

Fried turned in his seat to look at Laxus as he joined him at the bar. Mirajane smiled, quickly snapping her gaping mouth shut. Ignoring the fact that she had just been caught off midsentence, she set about to fulfill the blonde man's order as he and her green-haired crush began to converse about Laxus's most recent mission. If she happened to slam Laxus's drink in front of him with a little more vigor than usual, she simply passed it off as coincidence. This, however, did not slip past the dragon slayer's notice, and he smirked at her knowingly. Mirajane's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

...

"Laxus!"

Mirajane's grip on the glass she had been polishing suddenly tightened until it cracked under the pressure of her hand.

"What was that?" Freed questioned upon hearing the noise, pulling his gaze away from the blonde mage who had just walked through the guild doors to look back at the white-haired beauty behind the bar.

"What was what?" Mirajane asked innocently as she forced a smile on her pretty little lips, smoothly placing the broken cup underneath the bar.

Fried stared skeptically at his girlfriend whose blue, blue eyes dared him to say something more. "Ahem," he coughed nonchalantly into his fist. Mirajane picked up another glass with a pleased smile. "Uh… what had we been talking about?" Fried asked his eyebrows knitting together as he tried to remember the conversation they were having just before Laxus entered.

_Crack._

...

"Tch. If it had been Laxus there-"

Fried let out a strangled yelp as Mirajane practically pounced on him. "Mi-Mirajane!" the blushing man cried out helplessly as she quickly took his soft lips in her yearning ones. She'd fill his mind with nothing but thoughts of her if it was the last thing she did.

That night, Mirajane all but raped her fiancé on her living room couch to the background noises of a gory horror movie. Indeed, for some days, it seemed as if the handsome rune mage's brain had been fried beyond repair much to Mirajane's amusement. It took all her strength as an S-class mage to keep herself from smirking at the blonde dragon slayer in victory.

...

Mirajane sighed as she watched her soon-to-be husband's eyes shine brightly with the look that could only be described as that of a fan-boy talking to his idol. Honestly, she had been just about ready to kill Fried (as well as Laxus) when the first words out of Fried's mouth when they had begun to plan the wedding were if she thought Laxus would agree to be his best man. As much as she wanted right then and there to outright ban that damned dragon from being anywhere even near her wedding, upon seeing those radiant, excited blue eyes of Fried's, she found she just couldn't help but smile at him.

She watches now as the two men, both dressed in elegant black tuxes, converse by the alter. Mirajane hates that Laxus is the only one who can bring out such a childish, uncharacteristic smile from out of the usually calm man. Normally, Mirajane would have thought such a smile was cute and endearing if it weren't for the fact it absolutely drove her up a wall whenever she saw it. She hates that it is a smile that is reserved solely for that man Fried most respects, and she hates herself even more for wanting to monopolize so much of this caring man she has come to love.

With a soft push against her back, Mirajane felt herself tumble forward from behind the large double doors she had been peeking through and into the long, wide aisle. Quickly righting herself before she manages to trip over her white wedding dress, Mirajane glances to her sister behind her who only grins at her ushering her to continue walking. With a slight blush, Mirajane proceeds marching forward in tune with the melodic piano music courtesy of Lucy. And her blush only deepens when her eyes lock with Fried's, and the smile and look he sends her is not the one of an overexcited boy, and she feels all her worries and anxieties melt, and she is melting because he is staring at her, and only her, with the one tender look she _does_ monopolize, the one that screams love, and she knows that he loves her, and she loves him, and that loving smile he sends her is more important than any other look, any other smile, and she knows when she's finally at the alter, by his side, that her answer is "I do," a millions over and again, and please just let him kiss this bride already.

"Mirajane," he breathes her name affectionately after they pull apart from their kiss. She smiles at him with so much love, it dazzles him.

...

"Thank you, Laxus."

Later, during the wedding party, when they newly wed couple is receiving congratulatory pats and hugs and slaps on the back, Mirajane's smile doesn't even falter a bit when Laxus comes up to them and Fried is smiling like a boy once again, because she is a grown, married woman now, and she knows she was silly to envy the older blonde man for something that was clearly not his fault.

But then Laxus smirks at her. Knowingly. And Mirajane is brandishing off a bottle wine.

As Fairy Tail custom would dictate, this being a Fairy Tail _party_ after all, a brawl absolutely _had_ to ensue. And not being one to go against customs, Mirajane decided to help things along when she accidently aimed the wine bottle's pressurized cork straight at a certain blonde head with wine bottle still attached to said cork.

...

Suddenly, Freed broke out into that all-too familiar large, excited grin as the perfect name crossed his mind. "La-"

"Fried, if you dare say 'Laxus,' I swear only _two_ of us will be coming out of this room alive," Mirajane threatened her blue eyes narrowing at the handsome green-haired man as she held a sleeping, white-haired baby in her arms.

Slight panic flickered across Freed's expression, but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, replaced instead with a small, practiced smile. "The thought never even crossed my mind," he lied. Mirajane's icy glare did not waver and Freed, being the smart man that he was, continued to lie. "What I was going to say before you interrupted me, dear, was 'Lavender.'"

Mirajane blinks, her anger disappearing like a wisp of smoke, because although she knows that the rune mage is clearly lying, she can't help but think, "That's a beautiful name."

And she knows it's a name she will love hearing from his lips.

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**A/N: So, one day, while reading SmurfLuvsCookies's oneshot, "Perfect Sense," I came upon this quote describing Mirajane and Fried's relationship as "nothing less than a courtship." When I read that sentence my first thought was that it was by far the most perfect way to describe their relationship. But immediately after that thought came another, odd thought: who's doing the courting? ****And that just made me want to explore this couple's quirks because they're always presented as too normal a couple in my opinion.  
**

**Also, I chose the name Lavender because that just happened to be the first name that came to _my_ mind when trying to find an excuse for Fried's little slip of the tongue.  
**


End file.
